Product Description

Life of Pi needs little introduction. Since it was first published in 2002 it has entered mainstream consciousness and remains one of the most extraordinary works of fiction in recent years.

In October 2005 Canongate launched a competition with The Times to find an artist to illustrate Yann Martel's international bestseller. Soon the competition expanded as the Globe and Mail and The Age newspapers also launched a search in Canada and Australia.

From thousands of entries, Croatian artist Tomislav Torjanac was chosen as the illustrator for this new edition of Life of Pi.

`My vision of the illustrated edition of Life of Pi is based on paintings from a first person's perspective -- Pi's perspective. The interpretation of what Pi sees is intermeshed with what he feels and it is shown through use of colours, perspective, symbols, hand gestures, etc.

`The idea behind this approach is a kind of an extension of Mr. Martel's idea as expressed in this quote: "It seemed natural that Mr. Patel's story should be told mostly in the first person -- in his voice and through his eyes. But any inaccuracies or mistakes are mine." ' Tomislav Torjanac

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #956 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-29
• Binding: Paperback
• 348 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Some books defy categorisation: Life of Pi, the second novel from Canadian writer Yann Martel, is a case in point: just about the only thing you can say for certain about it is that it is fiercely and admirably unique. The plot, if that's the right word, concerns the oceanic wanderings of a lost boy, the young and eager Piscine Patel of the title (Pi). After a colourful and loving upbringing in gorgeously-hued India, the Muslim-Christian-animistic Pi sets off for a fresh start in Canada. His blissful voyage is rudely interrupted when his boat is scuppered halfway across the Pacific, and he is forced to rough it in a lifeboat with a hyena, a monkey, a whingeing zebra and a tiger called Richard. That would be bad enough, but from here on things get weirder: the animals start slaughtering each other in a veritable frenzy of allegorical bloodlust, until Richard the tiger and Pi are left alone to wander the wastes of ocean, with plenty of time to ponder their fate, the cruelty of the gods, the best way to handle storms and the various different recipes for oothappam, scrapple and coconut yam kootu. The denouement is pleasantly neat. According to the blurb, thirtysomething Yann Martel spent long years in Alaska, India, Mexico, France, Costa Rica, Turkey and Iran, before settling in Canada. All those cultures and more have been poured into this spicy, vivacious, kinetic and very entertaining fiction. --Sean Thomas

Sunday Times, May 2002, reviewed by Margaret Atwood
Yann Martel's third work of fiction, Life of Pi, is a terrific book. It's fresh, original, smart, devious, and crammed with absorbing lore.

Guardian, 25 May, 2002
This enormously lovable novel is suffused with wonder. It[probes] the imaginative realm with scientific exactitude, twisting reality to 'bring out its essence'.

Customer Reviews

Left me feeling a little bemused...
I suppose, this being "biograpy" there was never going to be a neat ending with all loose ends neatly tied up. That's life. But I was really disappointed that although we know that the ship did sink and that he did survive all that time at sea, that there was not witness at the end who saw the tiger escape to the forest, nor that there was other physical evidence (bones, seaweed, etc) to back up his story.

I had also been led to believe, from the author's note, that a deeper message could be gleaned from this, that it was a story to "make you believe in God". Well, no. It didn't. It did make me believe that very surreal and unexpected things can happen to people, and that fate can be cruel. But I didn't see the hand of a benevolent god involved in saving this boy from a slow death at sea. It was OK as a "true" account of a castaway and of exteme survival. But then "touching the void" was a story of surviving against all odds, and I would recommend that over this any day.

One of my top 10 reads
I will keep this short.But let me first start off with:If this was shortlisted for the booker price,what book won?I have a feeling this may be the movie 2001 of books since I cannot see a book in the same year being better.It's such an engrossing tale with wonderful insights and written with imagination to spare.The end is almost the best thing about the book,and really ambiguous.You owe it to yourself to read this book.

A lasting impact
Some books are enjoyable to read at the time but fade fast. I read this book a couple of years ago and felt I wanted to write a review, as for me it's one of the most memorable books I've read in the last two years. It's refreshingly original and kept me thinking for a long time afterwards.